Why am I the only one who uses a reverse undergravel filter? Am I Bad? :becky:
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Why am I the only one who uses a reverse undergravel filter? Am I Bad? :becky:
Yeppers.
Why am I the only one who uses a reverse undergravel filter? Am I Bad? :becky:
How do I get a copy of your book? My phone number is is 727-457-3925 thank you.Redfishbluefish. This was not meant to push undergravel filters as I don't own an undergravel filter company. I realize most (OK all) don't want to use one and that is fine. I talk about it in more detail in my book and i am sure on these forums many times. UG filters died out because we didn't run the things correctly and it was a disaster. Then someone, probably Brian Williams invented SSBs, DSBs, BBs, bio balls, Dancing with the Stars etc. and we all forgot about UG filters. I think they are the best system for obvious reasons foremost being I installed it, it never crashed so I had no reason to remove it. If it is installed correctly using gravel such as dolomite like I use, or I would imagine aragonite or even crushed coral the thing should last forever as long as you maintain it once or twice a year by stirring it up. The system depends on a little detritus to keep it functioning at peak efficiently. We think of gravel as tiny rocks but to bacteria each piece of gravel is much larger than Chris Christie. Even larger than the state of Texas. I like to think of gravel in a Reverse UG filter like a wall built of cobblestones. The spaces in between the stones are stuffed with old Nancy Pelosi T Shirts. The T shirts would be the detritus that will form there restricting the flow of water. That restricting will allow some anerobic bacteria to grow and process some nitrate. Probably not much, but some. Detritus is made of dead bacteria, copepod shells, and hermit crab ballet slippers, so eventually so much of it will form, that it will restrict the flow to much. It won't stop the water flow because the water is under pressure from below. But we want the water to flow more or less evenly so once in a while I like to make a Typhoon to open up channels especially the ones that form under rocks. Speaking of rocks, none of them should lay flat on the bottom in this or any system. I built column's that my entire reef structure sits on to prevent dead space. I want water to flow all the way to the UG filter plate. Very early in this hobby Robert Straughn "The Salt Water Aquarium in the Home" and the Father of salt water fish keeping, realized that an undergravel filter was the best thing since "American Idol". The problem was in those days (the fiftees) he used the device as a filter and didn't realize that it was the bacteria living in the oxygenated, flowing water that purified the tank and not the filtering capabilities. A "filter" in salt water is stupid because we can't clean it. But unfortunately running water through anything will act as a filter and eventually we want to clean it out. I use a diatom filter for that but any canister filter with nylon floss or clean underwear from Vice President Biden could be used.
Did I explain reverse UG filtration clear enough?
Here you can see my gravel under the pregnant, very happy ruby red dragonett who loves the fact that pods live all the way through the gravel to the bottom and when they come up to play Rugby, she gobbles them up.
The picture of me with my duck in Nam have nothing to do with UG filters but I accidently added it and can't remove it, so Ignore the duck
It's under all my posts as long as you don't read this on a phone. It's on Amazon and it's titledHow do I get a copy of your book?